I'll edit after I test it out, but I'd think that having bombs explode bombs would make it much harder without removing it entirely. (Sharing the bomb timer or limiting to one bomb would make it require midair bomb-drops on the way up to land on.) What's the current damage radius on a bomb?

Version numbers always felt arbitrary to me, so I'll probably use the number of days since the project started like RHDE.

The radius is about 32 pixels, but it's sort of random. The two particles that randomly move are actually the things that get collided with so I'll have to see how reliable they are at exploding other bombs.

The "fast" way I wanted to test, jumping and placing a bomb 3 squares (48px at top…further testing reveals you can get it up to around 56px up with a standing jump and still land on it) up from where you stand, on the way up, so you land on it, is… easier than I expected. You don't even have to move forward, as the bomb already horizontally intersects you when placed. Likewise, it would remain unaffected even if the 32-pixel explosion radius causes bombs to explode.

But it's a decent bit harder than just building-a-staircase-of-bombs like you were doing.

[hr]
Testing notes:

Not sure I like the auto-popover-one-block-stairs. Kind of want it to not work if pressing down, at least. (I notice that this also works like the Power Grip, catching you on some ledges you'd miss by about a tile.)

But then it just doesn't work in the cave in level…? not sure what level it is. 5? 6?

Something I'm very thankful for is that it doesn't happen walking up against spikes, nor does running into a spike from the side damage Nova.

Hmm, it's a function of the left/right boundary ground tiles, isn't it? It doesn't work on gray block tiles either. Or gray ground tiles (late level 7), or the rock. Very much don't like it when it's very arcane about when it'll activate.

Still absolutely love the idea of a glider gun as a weapon.

The screen-blank on ability-copy or ability-ditch is rather irksome.

So's the one on "rearrange inventory".

Pressing against a wall of breakable bricks and jumping breaks all but the bottom one.

rainwarrior wrote:
I can break bricks simply by pushing horizontally against them and jumping. Is this intentional? If I can do this it feels like I should be able to just punch bricks straight-on, but I can't.

Yeah. You can, in fact, break bricks straight on…but only with the "nothing" power's shot. (I was expecting it to be the tailslap too.)

Nova (unlike Mario and Mega Man, but like Simon Belmont) suffers from the traditional "Cannot use arms and legs at the same time" syndrome (that is, cannot walk/run and attack). It is particularly nasty as you have to stop or jump to attack, otherwise it only engages the run speed, often the opposite of what you want right in front of an enemy. (Moreover, it's inconsistent: falling off a ledge, one cannot attack.) Speaking of falling off of ledges, you can't pass down through a ledge if you're holding left or right. (Like SMB3 I suppose, as mentioned?)

Clipped into a wall (in level 4, right before the Evil Robot-dispensing Santa King showed up) by B-running off the left springboard going left. Was unable to replicate.

Cannot affect the hamburger cannons. Their shot pattern is a bit random, too- I've seen a volley of four (its bobbing somehow managed to avoid capping sprite limit anywhere). There's not even an invulnerable "tink".

Stunned hamburgers pass through you, as expected, but this means obtaining a hamburger shot (for all its Long Beam, no-copy power) is difficult and luck-based, as you basically have to shoot before the cannon does, and then manage to get a copyshot off before it reaches you. (alternately, shooting a copy-shot such that the burger runs into your tail to get stunned seems to work??)

Found a pixel (see attachment) where I could not pass down through a white platform. Replicated a few times. Works in level 1, too. Seems to be on boundary between "end" and "middle" tiles of white-platform. (Left *and* right ends, from what I see.)

edit: easy way to replicate in level 1 is to drop left of the springboard, then inch forward until you just barely touch the spring, sending you through the white platform: you won't be able to go back down without moving left or right.

Ladder-climbing into a "goomba"-like from below kills it, damages you, and bounces you out its top like you jumped on it.

It's not obvious for a lot of moving platforms where they turn around. This is particularly nasty with one that stops one tile short of where you could walk on (see attachment), when all the previous ones went right up to the ledge.

Moving platforms, if you stand near the edge of a ledge they do reach at the end of their motion, will automatically take you from it. This is true even if it goes down from that ledge, and it'll "suck" you off of the edge. Not sure if bug or feature…? It makes it easy to get on platforms if you know about it.

Swimming to the top of a water under a ceiling results in continuous "I hit an unbreakable ceiling!" noise, even with no directions pressed.

Unpausing from inventory (with A) sometimes leaves a garbage line on screen momentarily. Haven't checked if this happens on hardware yet. Couldn't get it to on PowerPak, though it does seem like you're re-enabling rendering before setting the scroll.

Pizza does nothing? (even when damaged)

Dying on 1-1 refills your inventory with all the toys. Dying on 1-2 (or later) does not.

For that matter, noting which checkpoint of a level you're in on the death/load screen might be nice.

I'm not particularly enamored of the "plz" there either, but that's just me being old, perhaps…

Only Nova can stand on bombs. Enemies fall right through.

Music is right at that forgettable, unobtrusive level. A bassline might be nice.

(some edits to add information)

Attachments

The evil moving platform that *doesn't* go right up to a ledge, without indication.

Myask wrote:Not sure I like the auto-popover-one-block-stairs. Kind of want it to not work if pressing down, at least. (I notice that this also works like the Power Grip, catching you on some ledges you'd miss by about a tile.)

I have to manually place them in the level editor. They were supposed to be a replacement for slopes but you're right, they're not that helpful and players won't be expecting it to happen. Auto-climb for the player is now taken out, but auto-climbable corners are left in because enemies climbing them is still useful.

Myask wrote:Still absolutely love the idea of a glider gun as a weapon.

It's going to get a lot of focus in puzzle-y levels, with switches that you'll press with a glider, things you can bounce a glider off of, and so on.

Myask wrote:The screen-blank on ability-copy or ability-ditch is rather irksome.

I'll rework that to upload over a few frames, shouldn't be too hard.

Myask wrote:You can, in fact, break bricks straight on…but only with the "nothing" power's shot. (I was expecting it to be the tailslap too.)

Making the stunning shots break bricks was not a good solution and I think I'll just check for bricks in front of the player when the tail attack animation is playing.

Myask wrote:cannot walk/run and attack

If you switch it to Kirby-style running ("Tap") in the options you can. Should this be the default considering how Kirby-like a lot of the rest of the game is?

Myask wrote:can't pass down through a ledge if you're holding left or right.

I was trying to make it harder to accidentally fall through platforms, but it would be bad level design to use fall-through platforms in a place where falling would kill you, so I guess that's unnecessary.

I'll look into that. Until recently that cutscene didn't trigger at all because I wasn't clearing a flag when I should have, and cutscenes don't replay when replaying a level, so I'm not surprised there's problems.

The Smiloids in the plot are pretty much directly supposed to be the Smiloids from Faceball 2000.

Myask wrote:hamburger cannons

Stunning isn't actually even necessary, I just recommend that it be done since it makes it a lot easier. I'm getting the idea that enemies using complete randomness when throwing projectiles is not a good idea at all and I should just use a timer instead.

I made it so that burgers stop if they're stunned, and I'll make it so you can stun a cannon to stop it, though probably not destroy it.

Myask wrote:It's not obvious for a lot of moving platforms where they turn around. This is particularly nasty with one that stops one tile short of where you could walk on (see attachment), when all the previous ones went right up to the ledge.

Moving platforms, if you stand near the edge of a ledge they do reach at the end of their motion, will automatically take you from it. This is true even if it goes down from that ledge, and it'll "suck" you off of the edge. Not sure if bug or feature…? It makes it easy to get on platforms if you know about it.

Right now moving platforms are either line-guided or have a specific distance they have to travel. I should replace the specific distance ones with line-guided ones or just make them go all the way until they bump into something.

I'll see what I can do, probably just make it so to board a moving platform you can't already be standing on something.

Myask wrote:Swimming to the top of a water under a ceiling results in continuous "I hit an unbreakable ceiling!" noise, even with no directions pressed.

No longer triggers the sound effect while swimming and standing still.

Myask wrote:Unpausing from inventory (with A) sometimes leaves a garbage line on screen momentarily. Haven't checked if this happens on hardware yet.

Pizza does nothing? (even when damaged)

Dying on 1-1 refills your inventory with all the toys. Dying on 1-2 (or later) does not.

The lines are from rewriting the palette. Pushing out all the palette updates and then doing graphics afterwards is on the to-do list.

Pizza now works. I erroneously swapped the values on a LDA and a CMP and expected it to work the same way still.

Originally, a lot of state was going to be saved at checkpoints (the whole inventory, flags, the current ability) because I felt like the player should be able to have another shot at something with the same chances, but I took out the ability since that was unintuitive. I guess I'll take out the inventory saving too.

Myask wrote:I'm not particularly enamored of the "plz" there either, but that's just me being old, perhaps…
Only Nova can stand on bombs. Enemies fall right through.

Changing it to "Loading:". Enemies fall through moving platforms too, and I think most NES and SNES games I've played don't bother to make sprites interact with sprite-based platforms. Forcing them into a grid and putting them in the background seems to work for Pocket Bomberman though.

The platform endpoints being unclear will be less a problem when(/if) you implement acceleration on them that clues the player when they're going to turn.

NovaSquirrel wrote:
Originally, a lot of state was going to be saved at checkpoints (the whole inventory, flags, the current ability) because I felt like the player should be able to have another shot at something with the same chances, but I took out the ability since that was unintuitive. I guess I'll take out the inventory saving too.

Oh. I just thought it was an artifact(/failure) of "give all items" debug code. The problem with that sort of checkpoint is that you practically have to include a "start level over with initial items" button, or you can get yourself into trouble and waste. Are you sure it saves "current power"? It doesn't appear to restore such (go to end of 1-1, use bomb, go through door, dive into pit, bomb is gone from both powerslot and inventory).

If I use the bomb during 1-2, it comes back into the inventory, though. So yeah, hmm…just a little unclear. I suppose the sign explaining the inventory isn't in yet.

Swimming right or left shouldn't do so either- I mean, if it's supposed to be in the collision-ejection routine, then it should actually eject Nova so that it doesn't happen again.

NovaSquirrel wrote:
I'll see what I can do, probably just make it so to board a moving platform you can't already be standing on something.

It's not bad, just a trifle unexpected (and a little wide, you can stand with no pixels off the side and get taken with your feet like 3 pixels from the platform) and making it not drag a player that's standing on something else will probably be bad and make it so you fall through a platform instead of boarding it.

Last edited by Myask on Wed Jul 13, 2016 7:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

I wasn't really sure what sort of aesthetic to use for the puzzle world (Bummer Club) I wanted to have in my game. Chip's Challenge certainly doesn't try to create any specific setting, instead just being this abstract world that focuses more on making the puzzle elements easy to recognize.

RollerCoaster Tycoon has an abstract theme that focuses on geometric shapes and glass. Inspired, I tried to make a glassy, neon world even though glass is kinda hard to do without translucency. I kinda like what I ended up making, and it doesn't use up a whole lot of tiles.

Might change the dithering style, since there's the diagonal striping thing on a TV but it doesn't bother me that much.

I played around with more puzzle stuff and I've got keys that open locks, blocks that contain items (that display the item name above the item), blocks that shoot out arrows like in Hannah and the Pirate Caves (that can break blocks you can't break normally, or that set off chain reactions with other arrow-containing blocks) and blocks that turn into a spring temporarily and then disappear.
The spring blocks are really fun to jump on.Gameplay recording of some features

I have a lot of other ideas for puzzle elements that involve using abilities to change blocks into other blocks and other stuff so I'll get to those sometime. It's going to be a lot of fun to make levels.

Erockbrox wrote:I love this project. Please do a physical release when your finished!

I really want to. When I finish I'll see who's willing to manufacture carts despite a free ROM being available, and I'll have to get box art drawn and stuff.

Video of two levels in World 2. I really need to figure out how to make better quality videos, maybe not using FCEUX for it. I guess it could be spoilerish since it's puzzle solutions? They're not very hard puzzles though.

I'm gonna really try and get a lot more done on this game. I don't want it to take 5 years to complete, and I want it to be done at the very least by the time the actual 53 game cart is made, so it can be on there.

I've been working on adding a lot more puzzle-oriented stuff and new enemies. I have a lot of enemies drawn and ideas for them thought up that I haven't actually programmed in yet, and I have ideas for boss fights. The first boss fight is in, but it's really just a recreation of how a typical DABG level goes.

Now there's actual enemies you can get the Glider ability from. Yeah, they're not to the same scale, but they at least move correctly.

I have pushable blocks that can be pushed on top of other blocks, though I think I want to add more animation to them. Later I'll add ones you can pick up and put down, too.

I had the realization that I actually can make levels and worlds out of order, so I've been working on world 3 a bit.
I decided I didn't like the old palette I was using for it after actually seeing it on my TV and deciding the background was way too bright. I'm starting to see why so many games used black so much; there's black, and then there's really vibrant colors and nothing really between.

I went with a black background, but I changed it so that it used a pattern instead of being a boring solid black. Really wishing I had a second background here, though I think it looks okay:

Compared to the old snow tiles I also took out the dithering since it looked terrible on my real TV. I realize I'm using checkerboard dithering in a whole lot of other places but I'm not sure if I'm changing it there too.

World 3 is going to include rideable minecarts, and minecarts are going to have sloped sections, and I evidently don't know how to code slopes but I'll figure it out. It should be a lot easier since the environment is much more controlled, and I can make compromises like making sure a minecart never falls on top of a sloped section. One thing that makes them more complicated is that they're offset from the grid a bit.

---

I realized that for sprites that are ONLY going to appear in cutscenes and nowhere else, I can get another color for free because I can just use transparent anywhere the sprite uses white. I've recolored a few sprites to take advantage of this:

A neat idea: have multiple rooms that look pretty similar to each other, and give the impression that the doors are changing the room, rather than transporting you. My inspiration was Floria from Kirby Super Star but I think that's a trope that's been in all sorts of games.

NovaSquirrel wrote:I went with a black background, but I changed it so that it used a pattern instead of being a boring solid black. Really wishing I had a second background here, though I think it looks okay:

You could always animate the background tiles to show parallax, like Battletoads, MetalStorm, Gravity Man's stage in Mega Man 5, and a bunch of TG16 games do. Do you need code to do this?

My inspiration was Floria from Kirby Super Star but I think that's a trope that's been in all sorts of games.

What is it with Floria and [name] the [species] games lately? First Waddles the Duck, now Nova the Squirrel.